Maokai is a champion very popular in the jungle, and rarely ever played as support. Recently i have discovered Maokai's immense power as a support. In lane, Maokai uses his E for extremely consistent poke, and in all his, his combo is VERY efficient in winning the fight. His W-Q combo is simple to land, and hard for enemies to avoid. Even when they think they are avoiding you, you can flash then W, and pick up an easy combo.

For runes, flat armorand scaling magic resist will give you extra tankiness that is very necessary, seeing that you are most likely in the middle of the battle. I've found that running offensive quints and marks is very rewarding in lane, and helps win your lane consistently. The extra damage makes your poke very strong, and your ability to win all ins against your opposing lane.

As maokai is a support, getting the gold per 5 is very important, however, it is very important to be tanky while u engage on enemy players. So, i run 16 defense, 14 utility masteries. In utility, taking Meditationallows you to consistently use your E to poke in lane. I invested heavily in defense because Maokai is mostly in the middle of the fight, and not getting creep kills makes it harder for him to get very tanky mid game.

When the time is right for going in, W on your target, then position yourself so that your Q will knock them back in the right direction. This is extremely important, if you do not go around your target to Q them in the right direction, the fight will most likely turn in their favor.

Early game, Vengeful Maelstromhas a somewhat long cooldown, long enough to only be used once in a fight, but late game the cooldown is very low and can be used multiple times. Use your ult in the position where the most damage would be taken by your teammates. When initiating, laying your ult on top of yourself is a good choice, this mitigates some of the damage to come for you and your teammates who will most likely follow.